Bernard
Partridge, the son of Richard Partridge, a teacher of anatomy at the
Royal Academy, was born in London in 1861.
After being educated at Stonyhurst he entered an architect's office
and then a firm of stained-glass designers. Partridge also acted in
several plays and for a time he could not decide between the theatre
and art as a career.
Partridge was first invited to contribute to Punch
in 1891. In these early drawings he concentrated on illustrated reviews
of plays. The following year Bernard Partridgewas asked to become
a staff cartoonist with the magazine. He initially refused as he still
hoped to make it as a serious artist.
Partridge's work reflect his theatrical background and as one critic
pointed out, his cartoons often had "a massive figure, coming
down to the footlights". In 1901 Partridge replaced John
Tenniel as the chief cartoonist at Punch.
Bernard Partridge held conservative views and was especially harsh
on the trade union movement and the Women's
Social and Political Union. Partridge was knighted by Stanley
Baldwin, the Conservative Prime
Minister, in 1925 and the following year gave loyal support to the
government during the General Strike.
Although many critics believe that Partridge was Punch's best ever
artist he always doubted his ability. In a letter he wrote in 1897
he told a friend that he considered much of his work to be "second-rate"
and that he was "little more than a hack draughtsman." Sir
Bernard Partridge died in 1945.
(1)
Bernard Partridge, letter to Canon A. Rhodes in 1939.
I am under no illusions about my work, which I know to be really second-rate
stuff. The subject matter is not often of my own conceiving and as
to the execution it resolves itself into a strenuous stand-up fight
against a rigid time-table so that I feel I am little more than a
hack draughtsman.
(2) Bernard
Partridge, interview on BBC radio (1941)
I believe
a cartoon needs a simple statement of theme, with a corresponding
treatment making an instant and direct appeal to the reader; a sense
of drama and of humour with powers of draughtsmanship and facility
in portraiture, catching the essentials of a face in a few mocking
lines.
(3)
In his autobiography, David Low compared Bernard
Partridge with other cartoonists such as James
Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson, John
Leech, John Tenniel, Leonard
Raven-Hill and Richard Doyle.
Some critics of my work took the view that a satirist should defer
to the finer feelings of his readers and respect widely held beliefs.
I explained that whatsoever might be the duty of a satirist, it certainly
could not be too reflect, confirm or pander to popular beliefs. Rather
the opposite, for it was popular beliefs themselves that were frequently
the aptest material for the healthiest satire.
The circumspect cartoons of John Leech and John Tenniel were a sign
of the times; so also were the respectful pencillings of Dicky Doyle.
I took as a standard the works of Gillray, Rowlandson and company,
who were generally agreed to be the old masters of caricature.
Bernard Partridge and Leonard Raven-Hill were ultra-conservative,
even reactionary. Partridge, the last of the cartoonists of the Victorian
grand manner. His knighthood troubled me, for I could not think that
critics or commentators ostensibly of satirical temper on public affairs
should accept, like other men, the insignia of trammelling loyalties.
Partridge, as the inheritor of the Tenniel tradition in Punch,
specialised in cartoons dealing with national occasions, such as laying
laurel wreaths on the tombs of dead statesmen, congratulating epic
sportsmen, extending the helping hand in disasters, etc., in which
he represented the Anglo-Saxon people by Britannia, a massive matron
moulded according to the Graeco-Roman idea of beauty.
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